THE SOOTHESAYER INTERNET

May 2009

“To be or not to be.  That is the question.” William Shakespeare

The looming existential question we need to ask ourselves today in the U.S. is, should the current financial system be allowed to die a natural death or should we continue to try to piece together the dismembered Frankenstein monster, turn on the electricity (in the form of taxpayer money) and proclaim: “it’s alive!”.

The architects of this deregulated roulette wheel economy are busy as bees staying up all night stitching the pieces of the corpse together since they were employed by Pres. Obama in January.  They have convinced him that this corrupt system cannot fail and all the money the Fed can print has to go into the coffers of the failed banksters and insurance companies who are paying back Goldman Sachs’ derivatives contracts called credit default swaps, and lining their vaults with money held against continuing foreclosing home mortgages, dissolving commercial property mortgages, and credit card defaults. 

Meantime, this month’s conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron, and Neptune in Aquarius has the effect of spinning a blind faith and optimism that, somehow, Washington knows what it is doing when it spent the last decade allowing all this to happen.  Scandals about who told who to do what are leaking out and it is no longer a secret that this nation’s government has been virtually merged with corporate powers, scamming citizens, deluding them into massive unsustainable debt, outsourcing their factories and jobs, and controlling the media to the point people are so anesthetized they hardly know what happened to them until they are unemployed and homeless out in the street.

I am of the opinion that these monopolistic financial institutions should go into receivership since they are virtually broke. The system is in place to do this.  Punish the fraudulent and reward the honest. Let the solvent local banks that did not jump into the sub-prime mortgage frenzy receive the good assets and aid that they deserve.  Regulate derivatives trading.   Institute a single payer healthcare system that would save the nation trillions of dollars and take the expense of health insurance benefits off companies already burdened with benefits packages they can no longer sustain.  Encourage small entrepreneurial businesses that together are the heart and life of a healthy capitalistic economy.  Get rid of outsourcing.   Get serious about the Green Revolution before we plunge into the second American Revolution.  But I guess I am dreaming as Neptune transits the angles of my chart.

Health & Medicine:

As I predicted in previous newsletters and in my book, we are facing a flu pandemic coinciding with the Saturn/Uranus opposition in Virgo and Pisces.  This opposition began in November 2008 and will make its last aspect July 2010.  The Venus/Mars square to Pluto the end of April brought it to international attention.  My research on this subject has brought to light the fact that the greatest flu pandemic in history, the end of WW1 in 1918 that was said to have killed about a third of the world’s population, was not the sole cause of death.  It was actually a strep infection that killed people – a secondary infection to the flu which suppressed the immune system and raised the mortality level.  Today, we have antibiotics that are effective against strep, the ability to develop a flu vaccine, a mass media, and a world health organization that seems to be able to monitor the progress of the disease.  I think we should not panic and instead follow sensible guidelines set before us by these experts.

What needs to happen are investigations into industrialized pig farming, the vector location where this virus originated in Mexico.  These huge farms breed and raise thousands of animals crowded together in cages in filthy environments, often in nations with few or no legal restrictions.  They are an ideal breeding place for pandemics like this.  This is another product of outsourcing factories and farming in developing nations with no labor or environmental laws.

The Economy:

Venus and Mars in Aries both move into a harmonious sextile with Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron by the last week of this month.  This will set an energetic tone of optimism as progress is made in medical science and many technological arenas.  This is the time to discuss bold new ideas, even though it will be difficult to make them happen in the real world at this point.

Saturn goes direct in Virgo on the 17^th bringing on another round of layoffs and increasing unemployment.   Mercury goes retrograde May 7^th through May 31^st reversing some trends and making it difficult to finalize contracts and transactions. 

As I stated last month, there is likely to be increased violence in Iraq, and that includes this month as well.  More money will be poured into this war, in spite of this administration’s declared process of reducing troops and eventually pulling out.

The Chrysler Chapter 11 bankruptcy will give them a chance to continue to exist and time to restructure their business model and goals.  However, it will be a long time until any car company will show significant profits because people will not be buying cars in the middle of a depression.  A good business to be engaged in is one that fixes and repairs older vehicles.

I would advise the gold bugs to stand pat for a while as there will be a lot of swings up and down this month.  With Mercury retrograde, there will be no new major trends established.  I do think, however, that there will be a move upward the very last week of this month,  I also think that there will be a strong downward trend in August and a major comeback in the late Fall.  As I have said in previous newsletters, the bottom of this depression cycle is not reached until 2015.  Things are very seriously broken and not quickly or easily repaired.  Some people are gold traders and speculators.  I am not one of them.  I am of the opinion that gold is a safety device in a very unstable world.  My consistent advice has been and is:  get out of debt, stash gold and cash (grandma’s mattress), store preserved food, put out an organic garden in your back yard, insulate your house and use solar panels if possible,  get together with friends and family and most of all, be willing to extend  help to each other at critical times.     

The Obama Presidency:

The primary components in Pres. Obama’s astrological chart, i.e. the Sun in Leo square Neptune in Scorpio, the Moon in Gemini square Pluto in Virgo and sextile Mercury in Leo, and Aquarius rising with a Jupiter/ Saturn conjunction (Aquarius/Capricorn) in the 12^th House inconjunct Uranus and the No. Node in the 7^th, point to a brilliant, articulate, attractive personality who knows how to conduct himself well across the board with the powerful movers and shakers as well as with the struggling men and women on Main Street.

He has accomplished some very good things.  He has charmed and impressed people in other nations and repaired most of the Bush disasters in diplomacy.  He has officially condemned torture.  He is ending the war in Iraq.  He is a friend of the environment as he has restored many natural conserves, is enforcing environmental laws that Bush violated, is financing rebuilding infrastructure and investing in green projects.  He has sparked the civil rights movement on all fronts with racial and ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, and women. The new community program for young people to serve their country, similar to the Peace Corps is an inspiration.   He has brought us the lovely Michelle Obama who is tops in a hundred ways and two delightful daughters whose parents have obviously done a splendid job.  And we can’t forget the dog!

However, I am of the belief that he has gone in the wrong direction in tackling the worst economic disaster in modern history.  In picking for his team the insiders like Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers who helped create this mess, he is rewarding the guys at the top of the food chain who have lost trillions of dollars and have put the rest of the people into food lines.  Huge deficits are being incurred.  It is likely that without their help, especially the likes of Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase, he could not have launched and financed his campaign which is unfortunate, but true.  His military adventures in Afghanistan and Pakistan are costly and likely to result in the same failures as other nations faced there in past historical encounters.  At this moment, he seems to be under the spell of the same amoral powerful military/financial complex that has set the stage for a potential collapse as great as that of the Roman Empire. 

In October of this year, Mars goes into Leo and Saturn goes into Libra in a square with Pluto in Capricorn.  This is his opportunity to correct his course, get rid of the financial Mafioso, hire new people and move this country toward a more sustainable way of life.  If he does not do this, his presidency will likely fail and take the country down with it.  I happen to think that Pres. Obama has an array of talents and is sincere in his commitment to the greater good.  Let us hope he awakens in time, has the will and the courage to change his course, and is open to solutions way beyond the ordinary! 

Final thoughts:

In this historic era, the consciousness of humanity is straddling two worlds.  There is the mechanistic, materialistic dead world comprised of the accidental collision of particles and the purposeful collision of dollars. There is no magic here, no wonder, no awe.  This is the world of cynically controlled manipulations and battles for ascendancy.  This is the world that is collapsing before our very eyes and if we are honest with ourselves, it is frightening.  It is the world we are used to and have been brought up to believe is all there is.

Then there is the world of limitless possibility; the world of evolution and light in which we choose to participate in the magical act of creation itself.  This requires of us a recognition that each and every one of us has a sacred core which is the substance and meaning of all life itself.  There is no need for manipulation or wars for turf or competition in order to survive.  Here is where our destiny awaits us.  Let’s choose to be awake when it happens!

 Linda

Linda